That Sounded Much Cooler in My Head
by OneWordStory
Summary: Elizabeth Brooks’ favorite color is green,he is green,surely they’re meant to be.Too bad he’s an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she’s a human with an attitude
1. Curse You Alfred Hitchcock

_**T**_**h**_**a**_**t**_** S**_**o**_**u**_**n**_**d**_**e**_**d **_**M**_**u**_**c**_**h **_**C**_**o**_**o**_**l**_**e**_**r **_**i**_**n **_**M**_**y **_**H**_**e**_**a**_**d **_

_Summary_ Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.

**Warnings: **This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.

**Memo: **_advise: _Don't knock a story until you get to chapter three, and that's **any** story.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.

**Exalted Fans: **None yet

_C_h_a_p_t_e_r _O_n_e_: C_u_r_s_e _Y_o_u_ A_l_f_r_e_d_ H_i_t_c_h_c_o_c_k_

Elizabeth Brooks scowled at her phone. Because of it and it's lack of ringing, she was sitting at home on a Saturday nibbling on some possibly toxic two week old cheese pizza and coloring her nails with a green sharpie which would probably stain them. It was Saturday. Saturday. What self-respecting college student has nothing to do on a Saturday afternoon?

Well… her obviously.

'_There has to be something to do…'_ she thought, finishing coloring her last uncolored toe and glancing around the room. Dirty clothes scattered across the floor, a black bra draped over the lamp by the window, (she made a mental note to move that sometime) a leaking beanbag chair, a computer that was probably older than she was, and a ferret cage that looked more like some rainbow space center that was absent of a ferret as it's occupant had died some two months ago.

Nope, nothing came to mind.

No wait, something _did _come to mind. Alfred Hitchcock looked over at her from over her typewriter which was surrounded by unfinished scripts for various types of movies and plays.

She should see a movie. Yeah, a movie sounded good.

She stood up and went to the mirror. Well, she didn't look like total crap at the moment; the deep brown of her grown out hair against the blaringly bright green streaks of her last dye job, making her look very much like some sort of forest nymph although her figure was a bit too…full to fit any sort of faery profile, thin-rimmed glasses, a worn out black sweatshirt with a band logo that was faded beyond recognition, ripped up jeans, and black flip flops. She put her hair up in a messy bun and secured it with two black pens, and sighed, at least the street urchin look seemed to worked for her.

She was pressed enough for cash that she walked the full twelve blocks to the theater and forced herself reluctantly past the snack counter straight to the theater where Dawn of the Dead was playing as part of the Zombie double feature. Land of the Dead had already played.

__

Mortimer Toynbee-better known as Toad-had had a similar idea, bored and lacking absolutely anything else to do. He didn't feel too up for confrontation when back at the base Sabertooth was pmsing, Magneto was riding his ass over failing a few lousy missions, and Mystique was giving him the cold shoulder. When your safe haven became as miserable as the outside it was unsettling.

Normally he would have just caused a little pandemonium or hauled up in his room with some unfinished project or another… or a 'Playboy'; but he wasn't up to the first task, and Sabertooth's blighted disregard for another persons well deserved privacy voided the latter option.

Theaters were dark and all too easy to sneak into, and no one would pay much attention to him unless he decided to command it, and that was unlikely… at the moment.

He slipped in the arcade room backdoor, then just waltzed into the nearest theater that didn't have some stupid kid's movie or chick flick playing. That happened to be the theater playing 'Pirates of the Caribbean'.

__

Elizabeth thought the movie was pretty good, but to the original, there was no comparison. Too bad all too many movies were like that these days. She sighed, grabbing her messenger bag and heading out of the theater.

Halfway down the hall, she managed one of those missteps only a total clutz could and stepped on her own sandal just as she went to take another step, effectively snapping her sandal and sending her crashing into the legs of the person in front of her. Well, in short, their legs buckled from the unexpected hit to the back of the knees, and their ass landed hard on her shoulders, pinning her to the ground.

'_Way to go stupid, you tripped over your own damn feet.'_

So here she was, someone's ass was crushing her shoulder blades, and the back of her head was in their crotch. It was such a lovely position to be in. Judging by the feet, she figured it was a guy. Wow, that just made the situation that much better.

Why did life hate her so?

"Wot the hell do you think your doin'?" he snarled.

Oh how lovely, he was British.

"Erm… walking?" she ventured.

The guy hefted himself off of her, and she quickly got to her feet.

"Where I come from, that don't constitute walkin'."

"Sorry," Elizabeth mumbled apologetically. She looked over at him, but he was already beating a pretty hasty retreat. Well hell, his hood was up anyway, it wasn't like she would have been able to see him anyway. She reached over to where her bag had fallen only to see that it was gone. Her head snapped back to where the brit had last been and saw _her_ bag in _his_ hand. "That limey asshole stole my bag!"

She hastily started to scramble after him, throwing curses in all directions, but lost him in about five seconds.

"Son of a bitch, your lucky my wallet wasn't in there." Her hand went to her wallet chain and found it snapped with the wallet in question gone. "Your kidding me! That bastard got my wallet too?! Curse you Alfred Hitchcock! I blame you for this!"

Well, that's it for this chapter, don't be afraid to review! The more reviews the faster I crank out chapters!


	2. It's Raining Men

_**T**_**h**_**a**_**t **_**S**_**o**_**u**_**n**_**d**_**e**_**d **_**M**_**u**_**c**_**h **_**C**_**o**_**o**_**l**_**e**_**r **_**i**_**n **_**M**_**y **_**H**_**e**_**a**_**d **_

_Summary_ Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.

**Warnings: **This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.

**Memo: **_**IMPORTANT!**_Sorry, but I'm going on vacation. I'll update next Saturday or so. Please enjoy this chapter though it's a bit of a filler. _**IMPORTANT!**_

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.

**Exalted Fans: **Itsallaboutme11 // animebaby6 // Jinx of the 2nd Law // foxfire22

_C_h_a_p_t_e_r _T_w_o_: I_t_'s _R_a_i_n_i_n__**g**__ M_e_n_

The now disgruntled nineteen-year-old limped out of the building on her broken sandal, not trusting the sidewalks with her bare feet-thought it would have been a hell of a lot easier to walk-and started back towards her apartment. It was well after nine now and with no bus fare, she was walking. At night. In a pretty big city. With a reasonably high crime rate. Alone.

_Damn it._

Elizabeth-jumpy by nature-was all too weary of dark alleyways, and everyone walking. She was a small town girl anyway.

She liked to think that her caution had paid off when she reached her apartment in one piece and shut the door behind her; it was only then that she remembered that she still had to pay rent. Today.

Since she didn't get her paycheck for another four days, the rent money was all she had left. That meant she would be living off ketchup and moldy bagels since she had been putting off her grocery shopping. Well that was great, just great.

Giving a ragged, heavy sigh of annoyance and exasperation, she grabbed her five-hundred dollars in rent and headed down to the front desk.

"Mr. Thomas?" she called, tapping the bell on the desk. It was busted. "Mr. Thomas?" she called again.

Seeing as she didn't want to be here all freaking day-well night, technically-she walked around to the office door. "Hello? I've got my rent money, it's on time for once." There was still no one in sight, but the window was open, and they were in New York in a shit neighborhood so that wasn't really a good thing with no one in the room so she figured she should close it.

A breeze was ruffling the out of place lace curtains that Mrs. Thomas insisted on putting on every window, including those of the tenants. It took a moment of wrestling with it, but the window finally snapped closed. Loudly. Looking out the window onto the street, Elizabeth saw several papers that she was almost positive belonged to her landlords, fluttering around in a general line going away from the window.

She bit her lip, the kind thing to do would be to go out and get the papers and put them back in the office, especially since they might be important.

Elizabeth Brooks was too kind for her own good.

The papers weren't yet scattered to the four winds, so her job wasn't exactly hard, she'd gotten the largest portion of them. She'd jut grabbed up the last bit when she found a gun to her head. "Look here, your going to do what I say, when I say it, with no questions asked. If you do that, maybe I won't kill you."

Well, seeing as between the two of them, he was the one with the gun, that plan sort of worked for her.

However, before the guy could make a move or get another word out, there was a very definite gust of wind and the cracking of bones. In a fraction of a second, he'd been reduced to a bloody pancake on the sidewalk.

"Sorry mate, I saw her first."

'_Damn, it's just raining men today, rapist ones, British ones, there everywhere.' _Elizabeth had a bit of a humor reflex. Whenever she was stressed or scared or overwhelmed, the reflex would kick in and either force her to find humor in the situation or laugh her head off like a mad woman.

Her 'savior' stepped off the pile of gore, and grabbed her face with one hand, taking a small crinkled piece of paper out of his pocket with the other.

She winced, he had a good grip on her jaw, and she'd once had it broken in three places so she was in a good deal of pain.

"Well, you're a Brooks, she's a Brooks, so much for failed missions; I personally think I see quite the family resemblance." he said smugly.

Elizabeth figured the piece of paper must be a photo.

One really had to wonder how he could think she resembled anything but a fish with the way he was scrunching up her face.

"Guess you should say g'night luv."

"Goodnight, wh-"

A hard punch to the forehead sent the world to darkness.

Bwhahah, this is the first time I've ever written a cliffhanger. I'm so pleased with myself. Still, I know how annoying they can be so I won't have too many. REVIEW please, and a billion thanks to those who have!


	3. An Incredibly Rude Awakening

_**I**_**t**_** S**_**o**_**u**_**n**_**d**_**e**_**d **_**M**_**u**_**c**_**h **_**C**_**o**_**o**_**l**_**e**_**r **_**i**_**n **_**M**_**y **_**H**_**e**_**a**_**d **_

_Summary_ Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.

**Warnings: **This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.

**Memo: **SORRY SOORY SORRY!! I meant to update sooner, but a lot of crap came up so I'll have to make it up to you guys later!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.

**Exalted Fans: **Itsallaboutme11 // animebaby6 // Jinx of the 2nd Law // foxfire22 // Angeldustedthatfreak

_C_h_a_p_t_e_r _T_h_r_e_e_: A_n_ I_n_c_r_e_d_i_b_l_y_ R_u_d_e_ A_w_a_k_e_n_i_n_g_

Elizabeth woke up with a pain in her skull more intense than any hangover could ever hope to inflict. Unsurprisingly, she was tearing up, and wanted nothing more than to curl into a ball and cry until the pain went away, and she probably would have if it had not been for her seeing a figure looming over her through her blurred vision.

She forced herself to Sit up and blink away the tears to clear her vision. Regret smacked her in the face; she should have just gone with the curl into a ball and cry plan although it wasn't exactly too late for that.

At the end of the couch she had been laying on stood a dark mountain of a man draped in furs and surrounded with a thick air of malice. Long tawny hair topped off with a pair of fangs and claws made him all the more terrifying, especially to a disoriented nineteen year old girl who'd just woke up smack dab in the middle of god knows where. What was worse was that she recognized him from news reports as a terrorist, and a ruthlessly homicidal one at that. Sabertooth.

Letting out a small squeak, she accidentally flipped over the arm of the couch, landing hard on her already throbbing head. When the room stopped spinning and she regain herself, she was no more calm, in front of her now was Toad. She shrieked, becoming more freaked by the second.

He gave her a sort of dark smirk, but then looked toward two new arrivals; and older man with an essentially naked blue woman walking closely beside him.

Magneto and Mystique.

She was waist deep in shit at the bottom of a pit in hell. Elizabeth gulped audibly, earning an amused smirk from Magneto. "So it's awake."

If she hadn't been on the verge of pissing herself, Elizabeth may have had to make a remark on the 'it' comment.

"I don't suppose you know why you're here, do you?" Magneto asked.

She flinched, "P-Please don't… kill me…"

Magneto chuckled slightly, "My dear, did you really think you'd still be alive if that was our intention? And be here no less… No, I'm afraid you'd be very dead, Toad and Sabertooth would have gladly seen to that."

Her eyes flickered between the two aforementioned mutants nervously, and she unconsciously backed up against the side of the couch. As if that would help.

"Now, you didn't answer my question, do you know why you're here, or don't you?"

Elizabeth shook her head just the merest fraction, training her eyes on the most threatening looking person in the room; Sabertooth.

"Well, you're here to help me get someone to see the light and come to our cause," he answered.

"W-Who?"

He smiled slightly, "Your sister, Megan Brooks. She's an incredible girl, how _you_ could be of any relation to her is quite a lot to try to fathom, but regardless, I'm hoping you'll be enough to persuade her to join us."

"S-So what. I-I'm… I'm going to be l-leverage?" Elizabeth asked shakily, turning her eyes back to the leader of the Brotherhood.

"Precisely," he answered, "Now, Toad, Sabertooth, if one of you would take… Miss. Brooks, to see her accommodations…"

Sabertooth and Toad exchanged looks, and the former grabbed her roughly by the arm, causing her to gasp in pain. On reflex, she tried to pull away which only caused him to strengthen his grip to the point where it felt as if her arm would break. Her tears started flow freely, Elizabeth Brooks had never been good with pain, and she was in a shit load of it now.

"S-Stop…" It was the one and only word she managed.

He didn't even let up slightly, he just continued to drag her down the hall toward her 'accommodations'. In what was basically the darkest part of the hall, he opened the door and tossed her unceremoniously into the small, unfurnished room that was to be hers until they finally realized she was useless and killed her.

Her sister, of coarse, would never come. Not in a thousand years. Not to save her.

Megan Brooks had left home at age fifteen, leaving her ten-year-old sister with a broken Jaw as a parting gift.

The two of them had always hated each other, and Elizabeth telling their parents about her sisters secret had only served to cement that bond of hatred forever.

Elizabeth sat up and hugged her knees, turning a teary glare on the door that had just been slammed shut behind her. "Bastards."

She swiped at her tears with the sleeve of her pull-over, and sighed. Would her death be a slow or quick one? And when would the pain in her head fade?


	4. That’s Not a Happy Ending

_**I**_**t**_** S**_**o**_**u**_**n**_**d**_**e**_**d **_**M**_**u**_**c**_**h **_**C**_**o**_**o**_**l**_**e**_**r **_**i**_**n **_**M**_**y **_**H**_**e**_**a**_**d **_

_Summary_ Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.

**Warnings: **This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.

**Memo: **See, what did I tell you, a small update get's two in a week. This one is actually the longest so far too…

Oh, and I'm going to start an Evo Toad/Oc fic too, so you should look it up if your into this one and like Todd. I did, but then didn't, and now I do again… -.-

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.

**Exalted Fans: **Itsallaboutme11 // animebaby6 // Jinx of the 2nd Law // foxfire22 // Angeldustedthatfreak // Italia12

_**C**_**h**_**a**_**p**_**t**_**e**_**r **_**F**_**o**_**u**_**r**_**: T**_**h**_**a**_**t**_**'s **_**N**_**o**_**t**_** a **_**H**_**a**_**p**_**p**_**y**_** E**_**n**_**d**_**i**_**n**_**g**_

After a few solid hours of sleeping, the pain in her head had faded to a very dull roar, and she could both think and see clearly again. Still, she suspected she had a bruise on her head, and _knew_ she had the imprint of Sabertooth's hand as a bruise on her arm.

She glanced around the empty room groggily, wondering vaguely if escape was a possibility. There was only the door and a barred window. Forcing herself to her feet, she walked slowly over to the window, tugging half-heartedly on the bars. Unsurprisingly, they didn't move. The door was locked too.

'_Well, it was worth a shot,' _she thought.

_**-----**_

It had been a week so far, and Elizabeth felt like total effing shit; she was hungry, her whole body ached from having to sleep on the floor, she was bored, she hadn't gotten to bathe or get a change of clothes since she got there, and the bruise on her arm wasn't fading. Most of those things weren't such a big deal to her, but the fact that she-a girl who usually took two showers a day-hadn't had one in a week pissed her off. She knew she had to look like death warmed over.

Toad and Sabertooth would alternate guarding shifts and bringing her meals; a job that neither was happy about. Well, Toad would bring her meals anyway, Sabertooth refused to. She guessed Magneto didn't know that, otherwise she would surely have starved had his wrath not been involved.

To a degree she preferred Sabertooth who entirely ignored her to Toad who would do things that, in general, just freaked her out. Things like glaring at her for god knows how long without blinking, or muttering incessantly under his breath in an airy way that she couldn't understand. The fact that he was apparently insane was unnerving that in of itself.

Toady-Saturday-she was greeted with a lovely combination of Toad playing guard dog, and a grilled cheese sandwich.

Two things that, neither of which, she could say she liked.

"I'm allergic to cheese," she stated dryly when he shoved the plate into her hands.

He scowled at her, "Cor, just shut up and eat it, woman."

Elizabeth-absolutely delighted to have gotten some understandable words out of him-decided to press her luck and pursue a conversation of some sort.

"You don't understand, I'm _allergic_ to all yellow cheeses," she persisted, "I could _die_ if I ate this."

"Well that'd be a day for rejoicing', wouldn' it? I wouldn' 'ave to come down 'ere and wotch yer sorry arse then," he snarled, "Mags 'as been pullin' me away from impor'nt stuff, makin' me play wotchdog."

Elizabeth let herself smile faintly, caught up in the moment of knowing one of her captors was so aggravated. The threat he could pose if angered failed to register in her mind, something that was soon to be remedied.

"Important stuff, huh? Like what, were you off fuckin' some dime-store hoe?" she teased, feeling cheeky.

The Brit was not amused, his eyes flashed with anger, and a second later there was a hole straight through the stone wall of her cell. She gulped, her eyes the size of dinner plates knowing that he would have personally preferred that to have been her head. "Shut yer trap, not another word or I'll kill you 'ere an' now without a second thought."

"Y-You wouldn't, Magneto would-" she started quickly, not believing her own words for a second. He cut her off.

"Mags isn't 'ere, luv, an' killin' you would mean less ta me than drownin' a cat."

He slammed the door shut and sat down to lean against it, still fuming. Truth be told, he just hated coming here and being near her. Being near that stupid little human whom he knew was absolutely terrified of him and no doubt disgusted by him, just like every other one of her kind. It just pissed him off, _she _disgusted _him_.

Elizabeth gnawed her lower lip, inwardly hating herself for feeling so… guilty. Here she was miserable, in pain, and filthy, and she was worried about how her homicidal, terrorist captor was feeling. She really did have an attitude problem; she utterly lacked one along with a spine.

The young brunette was a total push-over; a sensitive little creampuff who couldn't stand up for herself, and hate to see others in any sort. She was the kind of girl you went to when you needed a shoulder to cry on.

She walked over to the door, leaning against it. "Hey, erm……Toad?"

No reply, but she knew he was there and could hear her.

"I'm sorry… I really am."

"Shut up you little cunt. I don't wanna 'ear it."

"Look, I didn't really you were having such a shit day, it's not like I choose to be an inconvenie-"

There was suddenly a loud cracking sound that cut her off. The dust and flects of falling stone told her he'd slammed his fiust against the wall from the other side. "Shut up! Wot do I 'ave to do to git you to shut up?!"

"Uh… let me have a shower and a change of clothes?" she ventured.

"Heh, 'fraid not, princess."

…

Wait…

…

She was just called 'princess'… by Toad. Oh how much fun her humor starved mind had with that in about five second. Oh yes, the plain princess and the terrorist toad. How the hell would that story go? So far, it looked like the princess was going to die. That thought sobered her up fast.

"Well that's not a very happy ending," she muttered, sitting down with her back against her side of the door.

Toad didn't question or comment-not that she expected him to you understand-so he was probably ignoring her, but he may have just not heard. She didn't figure he cared what she did so long as he wasn't at all involved.

Elizabeth sighed, turning her mind on some of the great questions in life; like if Sabertooth purred if he was content, or if Toad was born with gills like a tadpole. Yes, pondering the great questions in life….

_**-----**_

Um…Okay, just a few things… I think I made Toad's speech a bit to British accented, but oh well. And before anyone questions the whole hole though a wall thing, let it be known that Toad can, in fact crush two tons with his arms and three with his legs. That's some impressive strength to me…


	5. Inner Workings

_**I**_**t**_** S**_**o**_**u**_**n**_**d**_**e**_**d **_**M**_**u**_**c**_**h **_**C**_**o**_**o**_**l**_**e**_**r **_**i**_**n **_**M**_**y **_**H**_**e**_**a**_**d **_

_Summary_ Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.

**Warnings: **This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.

**Memo: **Well lookie here, at the lack of complaints, and nasty PMs demanding a new chapter, you got a reasonably long update. NOW SING MY PRAISES, MORTALS! Heh, just kidding...Hoorah for Toad-related interaction! I need to make my Mort plushie already.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.

**Exalted Fans: **Itsallaboutme11 // animebaby6 // Jinx of the 2nd Law // foxfire22 // Angeldustedthatfreak // Italia12 // Shostakovich // st.elmo-lover

_**C**_**h**_**a**_**p**_**t**_**e**_**r **_**F**_**i**_**v**_**e**_**: I**_**n**_**n**_**e**_**r **_**W**_**o**_**r**_**k**_**i**_**n**_**g**_**s**

She didn't attempt to talk to Toad anymore after that, she wanted him to believe she was sorry, sure, if only for her own selfish reason of wanting to rid herself of the over-hanging guilt. But angering a man who was a proven homicidal maniac and strong enough to punch a clean hole through a stone wall with so little apparent effort was a clearly moronic task.

After a few hours of relative quiet, the solitary sound of Toad's incessant inane angry mutterings lulled her into an uneasy sleep.

_**-----**_

She saw flashes of a place she couldn't recall having ever seen before, though it all seemed distantly familiar. It was like uncovering a memory you'd long forgotten, but different… less familiar.

A dirty damp room with several beds set close together, a run-down building, an unkempt yard with the occasional broken toy laying in the mud. She was up in a tree; safe. Until they spotted her again at least. Unfortunately, her safe spot wasn't safe for a long as she'd hoped; a haphazardly thrown stone hit her hard in the side. "I found him, Francis, I found him!"

Damn that little bastard to hell.

She resisted the urge to climb to a higher branch, the last time she'd done that, she'd broken an arm, and a leg. The thought of doing so again, terrified her.

Francis sauntered up, he was clearly going to grow up to be a looker, and he was already a total prick. "Why dun you come down, eh frog-boy?"

'Like hell I will, you arse,' she thought, clinging a bit tighter to the tree branch.

"Pfft, fine, 'ave it yur way," He said, jerking his head in her general direction. She knew what was coming, and covered her head with her arms, a second later she was being pelted with a shower of sticks, and rocks, and whatever else those bastard children could get their grubby little hands on. Then the jeering started, the name calling and taunting that hurt far worse than any stone or fist.

_**-----**_

"Wake up already, yur moanin'," Toad was scowling at her tiredly through the hole he'd previously made in the wal, "Jeeze, I can' even sleep."

The sudden jolt awake had banished all the details of the dream, the true memory of it flickered out as quick as a candle being blown out. All she was left with was a deep, heart-wrenching pain. Suffocating pain, like a huge weight had been placed on her chest and try as she might she couldn't get free of it.

"Wot the 'ell is wrong wit you? Why're you cryin'? There was no note of sympathy or concern in his voice, the question was callous and harsh, demanding an answer rather than requesting it.

She was crying? She gingerly brushed her cheek, and felt that it was in fact wet with tears. "I-I… I just…"

"Just stop, it's annoyin', it was jist a dream."

"Heh, yeah. " No it hadn't been a dream, it felt a hell of a lot more real than that, it was definatly more than a dream.

…Right? Maybe her mind was playing with her. Maybe that dream was the catalyst to release that bitter loneliness, misery, and boredom that'd been building in her.

It was a bit of a struggle, but she managed to fall back asleep. This time it was a thankfully dreamless sleep. Her rude awakening this time came from someone throwing open the door and tossing her head-over-heels a good three times, effectively disorienting her with little to no effort.

Sabertooth was standing in the doorway glaring at her like her existence was the very bane of his. Let me tell you, he was a hell of a lot scarier from floor level too.

"Get up," he growled. Elizabeth was scrambling to her feet in a blink, unwilling to take any chance of displeasing him, but unable to right herself easily just the same.

She didn't know why he bothered with the orders, with his hand clamped onto her arm it wasn't like she had any choice in the matter.

Was this it Were they going to execute her? She was too young to die; she'd never have kids, she'd never gotten a script accepted, and she'd never got to go drinking… legally. This couldn't be happening…

Her grief was cut short when he shoved her into the bathroom, "Now take a bath, the water's been run."

Elizabeth stared at him in slack-jawed shock, not believing what she was hearing. She was going to get to take a bath? Finally? Good god it had been so _long_! Wait… there was still one thing wrong with this picture. "U-Uh… um… could I be alone? Please?" she asked meekly.

She'd already attempted the 'personal privacy and why women need it' talk with him once, and she'd gotten a pounding migraine along with her privacy. Honestly, they were so abusive… of coarse they _were_ terrorists.

He curled his lip and snarled, "Fifteen minutes," he proclaimed gruffly, stepping outside the room and shutting the door. She would need to thank Toad later; regardless of his reasons, this arrangement could most likely be attributed to him.

In her sheer personal paranoia, she checked the room over thoroughly before considering stripping down, but just as she reached for the bottom of her pull-over, she caught sight of the air vent. Hell, they pulled this one off in the movies all the time. She hurriedly got the best footing she could on the edge of the porcelain tub and undid the grate.

" 'Ello luv, not thinking' of leavin', was ya?"

She fell backwards into the tub, fully clothed. It was a wonder she hadn't died in the fall. Toad leaned out of the vent enough for her to see his full, warty green face, and a toothy grin. Well, as tooth a grin as someone whose mouth was nearly 95 gums and tongue. It was disgusting, really.

"Now why don't you try bein' a good lil normie and take your bath, hm? Just ten more minutes now, your on the clock."

He ducked back into the vent and disappeared. Elizabeth sighed and slumped down in the water. So much for that plan. At least the water was nice. No… it was more than nice, it was heaven on earth. The warm water soothed her aching muscles, and she regretted having to move to take off her clothes so she could actually bathe.

That brought up another question, "Wait… what am I supposed to wear?"

"I 'spect you'll be needin' this." Toad poked his head out the vent again, causing Elizabeth to scream and almost tear off the shower curtain to maintain her dignity. Toad just smirked down at her and tossed her messenger bag on the floor beside her wet clothes, and disappeared again.

Nat that she wasn't grateful and all, but what the hell was up with that guy? A few hours ago he was an ass-load of seething rage, and now he was crawling around the air vents, and acting like a pervy teenage boy.

The inner workings of a madman were an impossible thing to fathom.

She finished up with about two minutes to spare, and-after scrubbing her undergarments as best she could-dressed in the green tank top, and green-threaded black pants that she kept in her bag. She looped that over her shoulder, and was about to pick up her wet clothes when Sabertooth opened the door, and grabbed her shoulder, "Come on, your done." He tossed her back in her cell, and set to his guard duty.

Elizabeth frowned, laying down, and pillowing her head with her bag. She'd brush her hair when she got up tomorrow.


	6. Erratic, Not Erotic

_**I**_**t**_** S**_**o**_**u**_**n**_**d**_**e**_**d **_**M**_**u**_**c**_**h **_**C**_**o**_**o**_**l**_**e**_**r **_**i**_**n **_**M**_**y **_**H**_**e**_**a**_**d **_

_Summary_ Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.

**Warnings: **This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.

**Memo: **Man you people are hard to please, some people said chapter 5 was the best yet, and others said they prefered the previous...the PMs and Reviews go one an on... le sigh well, tell me what's what and help me out!

Anyway, we're getting a little closer to some more romantic interactions. OH, this chapter should be feared for it's bouts of random humor.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.

**Exalted Fans: **Itsallaboutme11 // animebaby6 // Jinx of the 2nd Law // foxfire22 // Angeldustedthatfreak // Italia12 //Shostakovich // st.elmo-lover // GothikStrawberry

_**C**_**h**_**a**_**p**_**t**_**e**_**r **_**S**_**i**_**x: E**_**r**_**r**_**a**_**t**_**i**_**c N**_**o**_**t E**_**r**_**o**_**t**_**i**_**c**_

Mortimer's moods were positively erratic, always had been, and he would bounce from one extreme to another with no warning and often for no reason. This was something that, coupled with his rowing murderous nature, made him quite dangerous to be around if you were not someone he held in re-guard. For his close associates, his random mood swings served only to be an annoyance. For them, regardless, he was often observed as being that troublesome mosquito that continuously buzzed your ear.

In other words, he would be all but expendable if it came down to it. Only his bit of technological prowess would be missed.

Presently though, his erratic moods were proving a cause more of confusion than annoyance or trouble to Elizabeth. She had attempted sleep briefly but eventually gave up, far to awake to even consider it so here she was pondering Mortimer's mental-state and wondering what to make of him.

They'd had little interaction, frankly she wouldn't have minded a bit more. She was lonely, and he was the closest thing to agreeable to be found in this place and he was sort of… mildly attractive. Her eyes went wide at the realization of her own thoughts, and she abruptly shook her head as if to dislodge such thoughts. Toad wasn't attractive, physically or otherwise. Her mind was just… starved… for attention or something like that.

"Wot cha thinking' 'bout, pet?"

Elizabeth was so caught up in her musings, he hadn't even startled her. "How erotic you are," she replied automatically.

Neither of them said anything for a few moments, and Elizabeth quickly realized her mistake. "…I said erratic you know."

"…Right."

Her face could not have possibly been any redder than if she'd just woke up naked in a crowded Mexican restaurant after eating a bowl full of jalapeño peppers. Elizabeth took another few moments to recover, and Toad said nothing.

"Hey… um… Toad?" she ventured. He seemed in a good enough mood at the moment, of course that could change at the drop of a cat. ….I said hat.

"Wot?"

Man he talked weird. "Um… well… I was wondering why I'm not like… dead yet or ya'know, free." Of course she didn't expect the latter, but better not to say that.

"We 'aven't been able ta git in touch with yer sister," he answered bluntly.

"And if you don't get a hold of her?"

"Then yer fate will rest in my… capable 'ands," he smirked darkly, making Elizabeth shutter slightly, "An' dun expect no special treatment, no matter how 'erotic' you find me. Now, Mags want's ta see ya so get off yer bum and follow me."

Elizabeth nodded and stood. He grabbed her arm, but he was a great deal more gentle than Sabertooth, even on his worse-off days. That was probably half the reason she preferred him, he wasn't typically forceful unless he thought she was being difficult or cheeky.

Her brought her back to the room she had woken up in when she first arrived there. Magneto stood beside a desk with Mystique beside him. The pair immediately made her think of your cliché evil villains and his evil villain cat fluffy. Or Poopsy, or what ever ridiculous name the writer could come up with. The laughter died in her throat.

Sabertooth was in the room as well, standing a short ways behind Magneto, his arms crossed and his usual scowl marring his face.

"How has your stay been so far, my dear?"

That guy… the way he talked… it just plain freaked her out. "Um… fine?" How in the hell do you answer that question?

"And I expect that you haven't been a problem on any of your outings."

…Uh… wha?

"Outings?" Elizabeth questioned.

He nodded slightly, "Why yes, even convicts get to stretch their legs in the day."

"I-I… I haven't had any… 'outings'." _'Hell, I'm luck I'm in the world of the not dead with the guards you gave me. I mean, Sabertooth? What are you stupid?'_

He gave her an odd sort of smile, then gave Toad the same odd look although he stiffened slightly under his leaders gaze. Well, this pretty much explained why she'd gotten her bath and junk, inspection day had been nearing.

Magneto looked back at her, "Well, there haven't been any other problems, have there?"

Sabertooth shifted slightly, drawing Elizabeth's eyes to the sudden movement in time to catch a dark warning look from him. "Um…no?"

Magneto turned slightly and followed her gaze to Sabertooth, "Oh, come now, you don't need to worry about him, you are under my protection."

'_Are you kidding? If I rat out that pussy cat there are a hell of a lot of things he could do!' _she thought. "No, it's been fine other than that… really."

"Well, at any rate, I believe that for a time we will simple have to put you in someone else's care. Perhaps they will know what it means to abide by orders," he said.

"Why are you treating me like this? Aren't I a prisoner?" _'Or are you just playing mind games? Oh you sick bastard, that's it isn't it! Your going to destroy my mentality! You suc! I have to vibrant and imaginative a mind to lose.'_

"I do not barter with damaged goods my dear. I am not that sort of business man."

---

Kinda short, but the next chapter will have the arrival of a new character. Congrats foxfire222! As for the beta plans(and to the three of you who offered) I guess I'll just do without. Heh...


	7. Double The Eric's,Double The Fun

_**I**_**t**_** S**_**o**_**u**_**n**_**d**_**e**_**d **_**M**_**u**_**c**_**h **_**C**_**o**_**o**_**l**_**e**_**r **_**i**_**n **_**M**_**y **_**H**_**e**_**a**_**d **_

_Summary_ Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.

**Warnings: **This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.

**Memo: **The new character is complements of FoxFire222!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.

**Exalted Fans: **Itsallaboutme11 // animebaby6 // Jinx of the 2nd Law // foxfire22 // Angeldustedthatfreak // Italia12 //Shostakovich // st.elmo-lover // GothikStrawberry

_**C**_**h**_**a**_**p**_**t**_**e**_**r **_**S**_**e**_**v**_**e**_**n: **_**Double The Eric's, Double The Fun**_

Magneto dismissed her, and she scurried a short ways ahead of Toad back to the relative safety of her room. Noticing that her guard was lagging behind a bit, she turned back to him with a light air of concern, he didn't notice she'd stopped and bumped into her. His anger flared like a suddenly ignited match and he shoved her hard into the wall. "Get goin' and get out of my way."

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, rubbing her now injured arm. It was just a scrape, but it was a reasonably large one, "I was just… never mind." She felt a small knot of anger in her stomach, shoving her had been entirely unnecessary.

"You what?" he demanded, glaring at her with a mask of intense loathing..

"I was wondering what was wrong… you looked worried," she ventured slowly, being sure to remain as submissive as possible as not to trigger another flare of anger.

"Wot do you care?"

She frowned, what did she care?. Magneto was probably just pissed that he'd been disobeyed, so what if Sabertooth and Toad got punished? What concern of it was hers? But then she had to admit she had something of a liking for him, given the alternative. He did treat her… sort of kindly. No… she was romanticizing him, and she was stupid to do so.

He assumed her silence was her answer and sneered, "S'what I thought, now go."

Under his glare, she walked the remaining few feet to her room, and closed the door behind herself. Toad locked her in, and left in a huff. It was hardly an hour before she heard a strange sort or whirring noise from the hall. Curious, she went to the ever-trusty hole in the wall that was yet to be patched and looked out in time to see a streak of green and black whiz by.

"What in the seven realms of hell?" It sure as hell wasn't Toad, despite the green, far to bright, plus, the visible skin looked sort of tan. A normal skin tone anyway.

The streak whizzed back past again, but quickly put on the breaks. She couldn't very well fit her head through the hole to get a decent look, and the wall was thick so her line of sight was thoroughly inhibited. "H-Hello?" she called meekly, unsure, but curious nonetheless.

"Hello!" The voice was male and young, and….cheerful?

"Um…" she hoped she wouldn't regret the request she was about to make, "Could you… come over where I can see you?"

She could practically hear the grin in his voice when he spoke, the very thought brightened her mood, "Better yet, why don't you come out, I can give you a tour of the place."

"Door's locked," she stated dryly.

"Oh, here." He came past the hole much slower this time, and Elizabeth discovered that the source of the noise was his pair of black-and-green rollerblades. The only other thing she could see were he's dark green cargo's which had particularly large cargo side pockets. She heard a click and turned to the door.

This guy was _not_ hard on the eyes at all! His short, spiked hair was a more lively neon green version of her own grown-out streaks with the added contrast of streaks of black, and his eyes were an even more piercing version of the color with four black lines emanating from his pupil. His sleeveless black shirt showed off a bit of how toned he was, and his fingerless gloves with gleaming silver hand guards gave his look some serious attitude.

Was she drooling? Oh my _gawd_, she _had _to be drooling. He was gorgeous! Couldn't have been much older than herself either.

He smiled, "Your Elizabeth, right?"

She nodded faintly, so focused on not melting into a luv-struck puddle that she wasn't doing anything to fight down her blush.

"Well my name's Eric Sanders," he said, "Most people call me Bookworm around here though."

'_Get ahold of yourself, Elizabeth. That's bad, no naughty thoughts! He is one of the enemy! Get. A hold. Of. Yourself. You. TWIT!' _Mentally, she was trying to kick sense into her own ass. It sorta worked. "Heehee, hi."

Like I said… sorta.

'Eric' rolled his eyes, "Did you want that tour or not?"

She nodded slowly.

He pulled off his rollerblades, revealing black, green-laced converse underneath.

Toad, Elizabeth, Eric… green and black was such a popular color scheme. Although…she hadn't seen Toad actually _wear_ green, he just kinda _was_ green.

"What…What should I call you?" she inquired somewhat shyly.

He shrugged, "Eric's good, but Bookworm is okay too. Whatever you want."

Elizabeth thought it over for a moment. If she called him Bookworm it would be like she was lumping him in with Sabertooth, and Mystique and the others, and he already seemed so…unlike them…

"Eric sounds best to me."

"Works for me," he said starting out the door, "You coming?"

She hesitated, "Do you think this is a good idea? Won't the other's get mad?" _'Primarily Sabertooth?'_

"Oh, did I forget to mention that Eric put me in charge of you?"

Erm…Eric? He put himself in charge. Well that explained why he was here, he was nutso just like the rest. "Eric?"

"Yeah? Oh…no, no…Eric as in…Magneto," he explained, "You know, bucket head?"

Bucket head? Hmm…why hadn't she thought of that? "Oh…Well what's-" she cut herself short, she was about to ask what Toad's original name was, something she'd been pondering, but figured it was best she didn't know unless that's what he wanted. She didn't want to get Eric unnecessarily into trouble.

"Well what?"

"It's nothing…" She was thinking about that green menace too much. Here she was with someone who looked like he'd just stepped out of one of her fantasies and she was thinking about Toad. Short, ugly, cruel, insane, Toad. That was worrisome.

"Something wrong?"

"No, no… just lost in thought. How about that tour?"

"Oh, okay…" he said, thankfully brushing it off with a slight grin. Honestly, boys were oblivious.

---

This character came from my most loyal reviewer, foxfire222. There wasn't as much of him in this chapter as I would have liked but… well, there'll be a lot more in the future. Hope I kept him reasonably in character, FoxFire, warn me if I funked up, and tell me what to fix!


	8. A Bad Idea,And A Worse Idea

_**I**_**t**_** S**_**o**_**u**_**n**_**d**_**e**_**d **_**M**_**u**_**c**_**h **_**C**_**o**_**o**_**l**_**e**_**r **_**i**_**n **_**M**_**y **_**H**_**e**_**a**_**d **_

_Summary_ Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.

**Warnings: **This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.

**Memo: **IMPORTANT!!! I don't know if some of you realize this, but it is poor edict to add a story or author to your favorites or as an alert without giving a simple review. It only has to be something small like "great job!" or "Cool Story!" that is all we ask. Sometimes I'm really not in the mood to review or have nothing to say, but I do my best to go back and review! IMPORTANT!!!

IN ADDITION, this is kind of a filler chapter to get things headed in a good direction but it has no Toad-related goodness. You have been forewarned.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.

**Exalted Fans: **Itsallaboutme11 // animebaby6 // Jinx of the 2nd Law // foxfire222 // Angeldustedthatfreak // Italia12 //Shostakovich // st.elmo-lover // GothikStrawberry

_**C**_**h**_**a**_**p**_**t**_**e**_**r **_**E**_**i**_**g**_**h**_**t: **_**A**_** B**_**a**_**d **_**I**_**d**_**e**_**a, **_**A**_**n**_**d**_** A **_**W**_**o**_**r**_**s**_**e**_** I**_**d**_**e**_**a**_

"Well… uh… where to start…" Eric thought aloud, scratching his head, "Well…" He walked down a random hall with Elizabeth tailing him closely.

Having become unaccustomed to this kinder treatment in the nearly two weeks that had been an eternity, she was uneasy. As if that weren't bad enough, this place was down right dark, foreign, and creepy in itself. Goodness knows, a certain two mutants were probably out for her blood after she 'ratted them out'. It had been entirely inadvertent of coarse, but that would make no difference to Sabertooth and Toad. Magneto no doubt was not one to take having his authority being undermined lightly.

She'd been fallowing him for a good fifteen minutes with him talking and pointing things out without her notice.

"And you haven't hear a word I've said this whole time, _have you_?," Eric said a great deal louder than he had previously been speaking. The sudden sound of his half-yell made her nearly jump out of her skin. "Your some sort of space-case, aren't you?" he asked, amused.

Elizabeth puffed her lip out and crossed her arms in a pout, _'And your some sort of asshole, aren't you?' _she thought mockingly, she wasn't genuinely upset at him, but the name stuck a sore spot with her. "Shut up," her voice lacked any venom, and came out sounding very childish much to her dismay.

"No offence. If it makes you feel better, your pretty cute for a space-case," he said. Oh… he was too damn cool.

Elizabeth had to fend off the insane blush that threatened to betray her; he'd just said she was cute. She couldn't recall ever hearing those words from a hot boy… or… any boy. Elizabeth Smith was a total tom-boy plain-Jane until about a year and a half ago when she took up swimming, before then, she had lacked any figure to speak of. Even now though, with a full figure-if a bit too full in her opinion-she didn't like to wear clothes that showed her off, she'd always worn baggy clothes, and that was a hard habit to break.

She smiled, and tapped her fingers together self-consciously despite herself, he grinned in reply. "Well, onward with the tour you haven't been paying attention to!" A short ways down the hall there were five doors graciously spaced out, suggesting large rooms. A very grand dark mahogany one was at the very end of the hall, but the other's were rather plain. "These are our rooms; that's Sabertooths, that's Mystiques, that's Toad's, the one at the end of the hall is Mags', and this one is my room. Only Toad and Sabertooth really live here, the rest of us have other places to live when there's nothing important-Hey, that's a very bad idea!"

Elizabeth had walked past him to the door to Toad's room, and had started to open the door to take a look. Upon hearing him, she stopped and closed the door with a frown.

"There, that's better."

Flashing him a devilish grin, she walked to the very end of the hall and started to open the mahogany door. In a second his hand was on hers, keeping it from actually turning the knob. "And that is a worse idea. I admire your inquiring mind though. Still, it's really best you don't go in _any_ of these rooms… well… except maybe my room." He practically said it suggestively. Was he really _flirting_ with her?!

'_Oh be still my heart and raging hormones.' _"What does your room look like?"

"Why not come in and see?" he said with a wink, walking her down to the door he had said was his. Green walls, a bookshelf, a small TV, a bed, and a stereo, simple enough.

Elizabeth's eyes locked on the bed with a look of longing. Eric followed her gaze and let out a laugh. "Go for it," he said, "I know you know you want to."

Not needing to be told twice she dove onto the somewhat messy bed and buried her face in his pillow. Oh man, it was wonderful. Her aching muscles however decided to stage a protest at the sudden change in bedding, having been stuck sleeping on the floor for most of every day she'd been there. She ignored the sharp new aches and pains, and they slowly subsided.

She felt the bed shift and looked up from the pillow to see Eric sitting on the edge of the bed smiling that smile of his. "Feel better?"

"Do I have to go back to 'my' room?" she asked in something of a playful way.

"Not if you don't want to."

The answer surmised her. "What?"

"Well… I mean, you're my responsibility, whatever trouble you cause or if you try to run or something it'll be my ass that gets punishment but you don't exactly seem like the trouble making type so I'll cut a deal with you," he offered, she sat up and leaned towards him, listening intently now, "You don't cause any trouble, or get in anyone's way and I'll give you free run. Deal?"

"Chya, hell yes!" she practically shouted. Her happy moment was cut short when she realized how foolish she must have seemed right then, "Heh, sorry."

"No prob, enjoy your freedom."

It was limited freedom sure, but at least she wasn't going to have to be stuck in that one dull room all day. "Coolie….so…I gotta ask, why do they call you Bookworm."

"Oh, that, heh, well that has to do with my power."

'_Yeah, I kinda noticed that's how it works around here dummy, I'm not that dense.' _"What's your power?"

"Basically, if I touch a book or a file, or anything with written information on it really, I can absorb that information in an instant."

"Funny, you don't look like the book type to me."

"Yeah, well…" he flexed his arms, "gives the ladies something to look at."

She batted his arm playfully, "They're not that great." He reminded him a lot of her friend Jonathan. Jonathan… she'd forgotten, she was supposed to help him pick out a gift for his sister Terra on Sunday, the day after she'd ended up in the middle of this mess. It was that subtle little thing that brought reality crashing back down onto her. "I… I'm going to go back to my room. Thanks for the tour, Eric," she said, starting for the door.

"Hey, you okay? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, it's fine, I'll see you around I'm guessing?"

"Well I _am _supposed to keep an eye on you."

-----

Ack, I'm starting to hate this fic, I want to get to the romancy-bits soon, and finish this all off so I can start up a newer better fic! Ah well, drop me a quick review guys, my liking of this story is waning, and I really don't want to scrap it.

Well, this was kind of a filler chapter, but the next one will be a big step toward romantic goodness!


	9. Hurt In More Ways Than One

_**I**_**t**_** S**_**o**_**u**_**n**_**d**_**e**_**d **_**M**_**u**_**c**_**h **_**C**_**o**_**o**_**l**_**e**_**r **_**i**_**n **_**M**_**y **_**H**_**e**_**a**_**d **_

_Summary_ Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.

**Warnings: **This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.

**Memo: **_**THIS STORY IS UNDER NE MANAGEMENT! **_I am MortimerToynbeeFan, and AOneWordStory has handed over her account and story to me. Please enjoy...AND READ THE STORY "FREE BIRD" IT'S AWSOME:3

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.

**Exalted Fans: **Itsallaboutme11 // animebaby6 // Jinx of the 2nd Law // foxfire222 // Angeldustedthatfreak // Italia12 //Shostakovich // st.elmo-lover // GothikStrawberry

_**C**_**h**_**a**_**p**_**t**_**e**_**r **_**N**_**i**_**n**_**e**_**: H**_**u**_**r**_**t **_**I**_**n**_** M**_**o**_**r**_**e**_** W**_**a**_**y**_**s**_** T**_**h**_**a**_**n**_** O**_**n**_**e**

Elizabeth wandered in what she hoped was the general direction of her room, her mixed emotions settling over her like a death shroud as she rubbed her arms uncomfortably. She was finally starting to really miss home.

The sound of heavy footsteps pulled her out of her moment of angsting, and she looked up to see Toad was making his way down the hall towards her, favoring one of his legs and clutching his right shoulder. He glanced up at her with a look of surprise, and quickly straightened up, putting weight on the leg he'd been favoring and dropping his hand from his shoulder. Looking past the glare he was now giving her, she saw that a split lip and black eye accompanied his other apparent injuries.

Her breath caught in her throat, "W-What happened to you?" She knew what had happened, punishment had happened.

"Wot do you care?" he spat.

She winced, "Here, just… let me help."

"I don' need _your_ help!" he snarled, his eyes flickering with animalistic ferocity.

It scared her, he scared her, but she couldn't let him know that. She visibly shook herself and took a deep breath, "Look, just let me help you."

"Take your bleedin' 'eart somewhere else, I don' need it."

"What do you have against me? What have I done?"

"Funk off!" He all but threw her into the opposing wall. Elizabeth hissed at the sudden pain in her side, but made herself stand, keeping her eyes trained on him.

"Whoa, dude, whoa whoa whoa!" Eric said over and over, temporarily stripped of coherence at having just seen Elizabeth get tossed against the wall like a rag-doll, "Toad, you've already made Mags upset, do you really want to piss him off more?"

Toad turned his glare on Eric, "Tell 'er to keep 'er Bleedin' 'eart away from me then," that said, he continued on his way, and out of sight.

Elizabeth frowned, she knew he wasn't someone who would want pity, but how could she not pity him?

"Elizabeth, you really need to watch yourself, not the all guys around her are as kind and charming as I am," Eric stated plainly, "and I can't always be around to rescue you. You can't keep your freedom if you don't stay out of trouble, and out of harms way."

"You shouldn't have to save me!" Elizabeth half-shouted, severely upset as well as in pain, "Why? Why is he like that? What have I don't to him? He's hated me from day one!"

Eric recoiled a bit, "I… well… It-It's nothing you've done, not you personally at least."

"Then what is it?" she demanded.

Eric stared at the floor, rubbing the back of his neck apprehensively, "Have you _looked_ at him lately?"

Of coarse she had!

"Well, he's been like that since he was born from what I hear; he's never exactly been treated well by……" his voice trailed off and his eyes found hers.

"By humans," she finished, "So _that's _why? _That's _what he's holding against me?"

Eric's green eyes gained a sudden playful glint, "If it makes you feel any better, the only thing I have to hold against you is myself," he joked, making her blush slightly. He wasn't trying to seriously come onto her, he was just messing around. Couldn't say that sad look she'd had hadn't unsettled him either though.

"Ahem….yes…um…I'm going to go back to my room then," she announced, starting off again.

"Do you know the way?"

She paused, _'Not really.' _"I can find it." _'I'm not that terribly stupid, now shut up,' _she'd just made herself feel insulted and bristled,_ 'Men are like big annoying dogs that stand upright and talk, I swear.'_

Once Eric was out of sight, she sat down, putting her head in her hands. She sighed, that was the only reason she was so hated around here, because she was human. She thought about Toad, at a glance, he was sort of… ugly? No… that word was too strong, regardless, once you looked a bit closer, the majority of his features were quite attractive; a nicely shaped face, a very good body from what she could tell, and his eyes were astounding, if a bit… unusually large.

Despite what she saw, there was no denying that his life must have been hell. Elizabeth was a normal-looking human and she'd always had it pretty hard in school; few friends, no boyfriends, no real social life, she was your typical high-school loser in the end, nothing terribly dramatic really. Not that she was trying to compete with what she was trying to understand about him.

She let out an exasperated sigh and raked her hands through her hair in frustration, resulting in a mess of faded green streaks and deep brown. What was she supposed to do? Well, so far she'd done few things any kidnapped person half in their right mind probably would have. She was supposed to be contemplating escape, not worrying about the well-being of her kidnappers. Shaking her head as if to physically dislodge her thoughts, she stood and continued her way back to her room; she needed her bag.

Much to her own surprise, she actually recognized the way back, this was a considerable feat since nearly every hall looked exactly the same. _'Ha, told you I could make it back, Eric. And here you probably expected me to get lost for a week and starve to death or something. Well in your face.' _she celebrated mentally.

Her bag lay on the floor next to Eric's discarded rollerblades. _'I should probably take those back,' _she thought, looping her bag over her head, and picking up the skates. She was headed back there anyway after all, and this time _she _was going to win-out over Toad, he wasn't going to scare her off again, and she wouldn't need Eric to run to her rescue.

With her new bout of resolve, she let herself smile and started back the way she had come.

She knocked on Eric's door first and it took him all of half a second to open hit. The sudden rush of air made her lean back slightly with a somewhat surprised look, "Were you waiting for me?"

"Um… no?" His face wasn't readable so she couldn't tell if it was a joke or not. Most likely was.

"I came to… uh… give you these." She held out his skates to him, barely suppressing a blush when his hand brushed hers as he took them.

"Wow, thanks."

She shrugged nonchalantly, "It was nothing."

He gave her a half smile, "Then thanks for nothing. Wanna come in?"

"Nah, I've grown sort of fond of the stone floor of my room," she said, half-sarcastically she had grown accustomed to it to an extent.

"Alright, your loss. Tell you what, I'll see if I can get you a bed tomorrow, okay? It's kind of late."

"Okay, cool." It was late? In a place with no windows and with an irregular sleeping schedule, it was hard to keep up with these things. The batteries had been taken out of her phone as an obvious precaution so she couldn't even use the clock on it. "I'll… uh… see you later then."

He nodded, "Tomorrow, bright and early. You wanna eat with us?"

Us? _Us? _Did he mean what she thought he meant? 'Us' including the others like Sabertooth and Mystique _us_? "N-N-No!" How could he even ask that? No way, that was _too_ freaking scary a thought. Contact with them one at a time was sometimes more than she could handle depending on who it was.

"Well… you seemed not to mind too much, I mean…Ah, never mind, sorry I asked," he apologized, "I should have known better."

"No, it's not your fault, I just…" she sighed, unable to spit out the right thing without sounding like a royal ass. "Bright and early then?"

"Bright and early," he agreed, "Night."

"Night."

He shut his door and Elizabeth's eyes went to the one next to it, the one leading to Toad's room. She eyed it for a moment with what was practically a look of suspicion, as if she expected it to bite her. She gnawed her lower lip, a show of anxiety. Why was this really so hard? How honestly hard was it to just open a door?

"Oh…. Fuck it," she swore, she totally lacked the nerve. Taking her CD player out of her bag, she plopped down against the wall, determined to build up the courage to open that damn door, even if it took all night.

_Can't change this feeling,  
I'm way out of touch,  
Can't change this meaning,  
Well it means too much,  
Never felt so lonely,  
Never felt so good,  
Can't be the only one misunderstood,  
Cause I remind myself of somebody else…_

-----

Next chapter, ALL Toad-related goodness, I swear. I'm the new author, so give me a break if I'm not getting Elizabeth quite right. Heh, this one's longer than any of the other chapters, I checked! Celebrate all!

Artist: **Lifehouse** - Album: **No Name Face** - Year: **2000 **- Title: **Somebody Else's Song**


	10. Embarrassment and Sincerity

_**I**_**t**_** S**_**o**_**u**_**n**_**d**_**e**_**d **_**M**_**u**_**c**_**h **_**C**_**o**_**o**_**l**_**e**_**r **_**i**_**n **_**M**_**y **_**H**_**e**_**a**_**d **_

_Summary_ Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.

**Warnings: **This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.

**Memo: **SO my new peeps, this chapter isnt the best, but at least now we can get going with the romancy bits.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.

**Exalted Fans: **Itsallaboutme11 // animebaby6 // Jinx of the 2nd Law // foxfire222 // Angeldustedthatfreak // Italia12 //Shostakovich // st.elmo-lover // GothikStrawberry // darkraya

_**C**_**h**_**a**_**p**_**t**_**e**_**r **_**T**_**e**_**n: **_**E**_**m**_**b**_**a**_**r**_**r**_**a**_**s**_**s**_**m**_**e**_**n**_**t**_** a**_**n**_**d **_**S**_**i**_**n**_**c**_**e**_**r**_**i**_**t**_**y**_

"Ow!" That was the first word out of Elizabeth's mouth when she woke up that day, due to a sudden sharp pain in her foot. Finding her vision foggy, she pushed up her glasses out of reflex, not noticing that it did nothing to improve her vision. Toad heard her exclamation and looked around the door at her.

"Why are you sleepin' in the hall?" he demanded.

While she couldn't distinguish a dog from a door at the moment, she recognized his voice and managed some coherent speech, "Wuz… worried about you… thaz'all," she answered groggily, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

He scoffed, "Get up."

She complied, but the blood suddenly rushing to her head dizzied her, making her fall right onto him, he caught her. Vision clear, she found herself about an inch from his face. "I-I…" She had no freaking clue what to say, so instead closed her eyes and braced herself for the coming connection she was no doubt about to make with the wall.

"You can open your eyes," he said gruffly, promptly letting her go.

"O-Oh, heh, I thought…" she trailed off, saying 'I thought you were going to slam me into a will' just didn't sound like the smart thing to say.

"Bookworm's got ya on a damned loose leash," he mused, "You gonna start eatin' with us then?"

What was with this? Not only had Eric asked her the same thing, here Toad was talking to her civilly when yesterday he'd thrown her into a wall. Hell, her ribs were aching still.

She stared at him, "Why, is that some sort of invitation?" It wasn't asked suggestively or oddly toned, it was a simple plain question.

He just shrugged in reply, continuing off on his merry way. She grabbed her stuff and followed, she'd wanted to talk to him, and apparently he was in a somewhat good mood making now as good a time as any.

The kitchen wasn't anything extravagant, it had the basics; fridge, stove, dishwasher, microwave, counter, cabinets, same ole' same ole', just what you'd find in your typical kitchen. She glanced around, looking for her other captors but found that the 'us' Eric had mentioned, at the moment, consisted of just Toad who was not hesitating in diving into the fridge. "Um… where is everyone else?"

"Well," Her jaw actually dropped when she realized he was actually going to answer. "Sabertooth is on a mission with Mystique, gawd knows where Mags is, and Eric's wanderin' about somewhere," he turned and looked at her, "Somethin' wrong?"

She realized her mouth was still agape and quickly shut it, embarrassed. "Oh." _'Oh. He's being civil to you and the best you can manage is 'Where is everyone?' and 'Oh' you are SO stupid.' _She racked her brain for a suitable question or comment, one that might seem cool or something, but nothing was coming to mind.

He studied her for a moment, casually so, but having his eyes on her instantly made her inwardly panic. "My favorite color is green," she blurted out.

"Wot?"

'_Smooth, you're a real freaking genius, aren't ya? That's was just great. Honestly, 'my favorite color is green' what in the seven realms of hell was __**THAT**__?' _"M-My favorite color… it's green," she repeated, her mouth going dry and her face reddening.

A look of confusion crossed his face, and he shook his head. No surprise there, it doesn't get much more random than spouting off what your favorite color is entirely unprovoked.

' '_My favorite color is green'. How does that sound to him? He __**IS**__ green for gawd's sake.'_

"Right then," was all he said.

'_Congratulations Elizabeth, you're an idiot.'_

There was an obscenely long silence, broken by the snap of Toad's tongue as it shot out and snagged an apple from the bowl to her immediate right. She flinched in surprise, and looked at him wide-eyed. He gave her a strange sort of smirk.

"So…" he said, "Why do you like the color green?" It was the most obvious thing he could think to say though he didn't expect her to answer, he expected her to scamper off, thoroughly freaked out.

"I don't know… I just… always have," she answered offhandedly, "I've always been attracted to it," she added, thinking back on Eric. The two of them realized just what had been said at roughly the same moment but offered two very different reactions; Elizabeth's reddening cheeks were quick to betray her again while Toad slammed his fist down on the counter in anger.

"Just stop it, alright?" he demanded.

"Stop what?" she asked, genuinely clueless. She'd done nothing truly wrong, after all.

"Stop tryin' to yank me around like that, just stop. I'm not stupid and I'm not fallin' for it. 'I was worried about you', 'My favorite color is green, always been attracted to it' an all that other fake shit. Stop bloody fuckin' with me." His voice never raised above normal, but the icy edge to his words seemed to make the temperature in the room drop a few degrees.

Elizabeth fell silent, figuring that arguing with him would only make him more senselessly angry with her, what was he even insinuating? She just looked at him. He still had the black eye which was an impressive shade of dark green and his lip still had the definitive split down the middle. She winced, those were her fault, or so she couldn't help but feel that they were. Aside from those, accompanying the wart to the right of his nose that looked amusingly like a large beauty mark, were many thin barely visible scars. She frowned, his face was littered with hairline scars.

Her attention went to his eyes and found she was receiving a very dark glare, she didn't look away, she wouldn't be so easily scared off this time. "Not everyone is out to get you, you know," she said quietly when she found herself no longer able to hold that harsh gaze, and conceded to look away. He faltered at those sincere words.

-----

Sorry I was a bit late with the update, I got the new Harry Potter book and all. The ending disappointed me.


	11. The Spatula Incident

_**I**_**t**_** S**_**o**_**u**_**n**_**d**_**e**_**d **_**M**_**u**_**c**_**h **_**C**_**o**_**o**_**l**_**e**_**r **_**i**_**n **_**M**_**y **_**H**_**e**_**a**_**d **_

_Summary_ Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.

**Warnings: **This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.

**Memo: **NEW STORIES! Well... um... I'm having a serious debate with myself over whether I should write my Todd Tolansky/OC fic next or another Mortimer/OC fic... I'm going to write several of coarse, but it's all a matter of which one next. I'll announce a time for voting on the next coming story when this one nears completion.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.

**Exalted Fans: **Itsallaboutme11 // animebaby6 // Jinx of the 2nd Law // foxfire222 // Angeldustedthatfreak // Italia12 //Shostakovich // st.elmo-lover // GothikStrawberry // darkraya

_**C**_**h**_**a**_**p**_**t**_**e**_**r **_**E**_**l**_**e**_**v**_**e**_**n**_**: T_h_e _S_p_a_t_u_l_a_ I_n_c_i_d_e_n_t_**

"Shut up," he snarled, recomposing himself quickly, refusing to think on those softly spoken words. She couldn't be trusted, she was one of the flatlines, and this was just some sorry ploy to save her own ass.

She gave him a sad, almost disapproving look, and he almost immediately started to doubt himself. "Fine," she said dryly, grabbing an orange and walking out of the room without a word; doing exactly what he had wanted… several minutes ago.

A scowl marred Elizabeth's face, she was angry; at _him_ for being such a fool, at _herself_ for being embarrassed and giving in, and at the _Brotherhood_ in general for making her life hell in several ways. She was also angry at herself for so badly wanting to cry. Why did she insist on confronting him? Why didn't she just lie low? Why did she want to figure him out so badly? Why was she doing this at all?

Unbeknownst to her, someone else was asking himself these same questions.

Most people avoided him at all costs, lately she'd been going out of her way to be near him. He recalled her groggily confessing that she'd been worried about him when he'd found her sleeping just outside his door. She was lying, she had to be, there was no reason for her to give a damn about him. It was an act, it had to be. He was half desperate to convince himself against what he would have so liked to believe for as long as he could remember. That someone honestly cared about him, if only a bit. It didn't help that the girl wasn't unattractive.

He ruffled his hair and sighed, he really needed to punch something.

Three days had passed since the two had come into contact, and surprisingly, it was not Toad's doing, it was Elizabeth who was keeping her distance. She'd only been speaking to Eric, and the others had not come back yet. Toad was confused, and would have thought his previous suspicions confirmed had it not been for the fact that he constantly seemed to be catching sight of pale green eyes watching him.

The idea had crossed Elizabeth's mind while thinking over what she was missing back home, while she was thinking over her college classes more specifically. She was taking two classes in particular that she was surprised to find actually could be used outside of class; communications and psychology. She'd been the one making all the approaches and advances and he didn't care much for not feeling that he was in control, that was probably why he would always get so aggressive.

The solution? She would just have to let him approach her on his own terms, it was the only way to go about it, but this whole decision didn't stop her from indulging in her infatuation with him. She didn't feel so guilty or confused now that she'd admitted it to herself; she had a crush on him, it was the only logical explanation, though she didn't know why. Oh well, you don't choose who you like, right?

She spent the majority of her time watching him work or train. There were two things she'd learned about him just there, he was a technology wiz and apparently learned in some form of martial arts… maybe more than one, but she didn't have the eye to spot differences. He had to have a great body under all those layers of clothes.

He'd been keeping an eye on her too, like when she was in the shower or changing clothes. He was a guy after all, and he certainly didn't view her as being unattractive.

Lately she'd been donning some of Eric's clothes since she only had two sets of clothes for herself and Mystique didn't wear clothes. Eric was very slim and had a preference for more form fitting shirts, Elizabeth was _very _busty which made for a nosebleed worthy effect whenever she wore any of his shirts. Even Eric's baggy pants served only to accentuate her ass. Both of these effects were done much to Elizabeth's own mortification.

It was almost noon on the forth day when they finally spoke with each other.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm doing the dishes, as you can plainly see," Elizabeth answered curtly, stiffening a little at the sound of his voice.

He shifted a bit, uncomfortably so. Elizabeth inwardly flinched, he'd finally approached her, said one thing, and she'd already become the domineering one, she had to throw the reins back to him to keep him conversing. "I-I know you were supposed to, your chore and all, but… well… you seemed busy," she said quickly, allowing him a chance to dominate the conversation.

He snorted, "Replacin' a few fried wires in a damaged jet is 'ardly tha' complicated."

She almost wanted to laugh, he acted like she'd just insulted him, "Would be for me," she kept her voice monotonous in a vague attempt to keep him going.

"Pfft, well tha's just plan pathetic then."

She shrugged, "Nah, just the truth, I don't think that's a skill I'll be needing any time soon anyway."

"Guess no', after all," he sneered, "at this rate you'll be dead soon anyway." She was far too calm, it was unnerving him. He needed to stir her up, he needed to normalize this situation. It didn't work, or so it seemed.

"Your probably right, what's taking so long anyway?" her stomach was in knots, her throat was dry, and she was half shaking, but she didn't let her present state come through her voice. Her plan wasn't working either.

Elizabeth had picked up a plate to dry and she noticed that it was shaking slightly in her grip. He smirked, she _was_ just like everyone else, scared of him but she just happened to be good at hiding it. At heart he wasn't nearly so pleased at the thought, "M.A.M. doesn' do a whole lot out in the open, they're real hush-hush, completely un'erground."

Toad was far from right about Elizabeth, she was just nervous in no more different a way than she had ever been when speaking to Ryan Dean, her freshman crush. "M.A.M.?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Mutants Against Mankind."

"Basically a more discreet brotherhood? Shouldn't they want to join you?"

"You'd think so, bu' no, Mags can' convince 'em to."

She clenched her jaw a bit, reminded of her sister's departure, "And Megan is in that organization?"

"Nah, I like ta bring up unrelated shit for no reason," he growled.

'_And now he's going all junk-yard dog on you. You got too bold again, Lizzy,' _She almost laughed at the thought, _her_, Elizabeth Brooks, _too bold. _It was a laughable thought to anyone who had ever known her. "So… what exactly have you been doing lately?" she asked offhandedly. _'As if you don't know, you've hardly spent any time not spying on him.'_

'**As if you don't know you lil cunt, you've hardly left me alone.' **"Nothin'," he answered gruffly.

Elizabeth put away the last of the dishes and looked him in the face for the first time, "So…"

"So," he echoed.

They stood there for a moment, Elizabeth scared to say something for fear of scaring him off, and Toad suddenly finding himself a bit too uncomfortable with the thought of looking the girl he'd been peeping in the face to speak. Needless to say… he felt a little bit guilty.

"Do you… want something to eat? I'm an okay cook, never got any complaints," the girl said stiffly when the silence had become too much for her.

There she went, doing it again, being nice to him for no reason. Why, she was shaking in fear of him a moment ago, wasn't she? Maybe he'd misinterpreted? No, wasn't possible, she was acting to get cozy with him in hopes of saving her arse, no one was ever nice to him without the thought of using him on their mind.

He didn't answer, he just plopped down on one of the chairs at the table caught up in a mental wrestling match. This was misinterpreted as a yes by a slightly over-eager Elizabeth.

"So… what do you want exactly?" she chirped, cooking was just about one of the only things she was good at, it was a chance to impress him.

He was totally deaf to her.

"He'll eat just bout anything you put in front of him," Eric chimed in, having just entered the room in time to hear the question, "As a guy who'll eat pigeons live and whole, he's not exactly picky. Right, Toady?" He didn't answer Eric either.

Elizabeth's expression soured a little. She'd wanted to be alone with Toad, to impress him, get him to talk about something less impersonal or mundane as they had been and she'd thought she'd been doing a pretty good job.

Eric seemed slightly perplexed, cocking his head to the side, and staring at Toad, "Weird, he's usually about ready to take my head off after I call him that."

'_Weird has to have high standards where Toad's concerned,' _she though. Hell, everything was weird around here.

Eric waved his had in front of his fellow mutants face, but received no reaction other than the pensive frown on Toad's face deepening slightly. "I think we're alone, Lizzy. All alone."

Elizabeth set a pan of water on the stove to boil, "Is he alright?" she questioned, starting to become genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, he's fine," Eric answered nonchalantly, "Seems like you would know all about spacing out, wouldn't you… space case?"

Elizabeth scowled, throwing a spatula at him, Eric ducked in time for it to fly over him and hit Toad smack in the middle of the forehead.

-----

Whee, that's kind cliff worthy, huh? This chapter was kind of fun, Toad's lightening up a bit so long as Elizabeth doesn't act like the thought of his existence unnerves her, but that's what he's used to, isn't it? Toad is SO a perv, you just know he's got to be.

On an unrelated note, this chapter is almost a page longer tan any chapter that came before it.


	12. Toad Hath No Fury, WHAT?

_**I**_**t**_** S**_**o**_**u**_**n**_**d**_**e**_**d **_**M**_**u**_**c**_**h **_**C**_**o**_**o**_**l**_**e**_**r **_**i**_**n **_**M**_**y **_**H**_**e**_**a**_**d **_

_Summary_ Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.

**Warnings: **This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.

**Memo: **I'm now making an Evolution comic so... updates may slow a tiny bit.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.

**Exalted Fans: **Itsallaboutme11 // animebaby6 // Jinx of the 2nd Law // foxfire222 // Angeldustedthatfreak // Italia12 //Shostakovich // st.elmo-lover // GothikStrawberry // darkraya

_**C**_**h**_**a**_**p**_**t**_**e**_**r **_**T**_**w**_**e**_**l**_**v**_**e**_**: T**_**o**_**a**_**d **_**H**_**a**_**t**_**h**_** N**_**o**_** F**_**u**_**r**_**y**_**…WHAT?!**

Needless to say, Toad came straight back to earth with a look that would have made the devil piss himself. "Which… _one_?"

Eric and Elizabeth just gaped at him, eyes wide.

"Which one of you hit me with a bloody spatula?" he spat, slamming his fist down on the table and standing up quick enough to send his chair to the floor behind him.

"It was her," Eric said, pointing at Elizabeth, "I _tried_ to stop her, but _no_."

"B-B-But… _he ducked_!" she said, pointing accusingly at Eric.

"Well you threw it!"

"Maybe so, but you-"

"Your water's burning!" he said quickly, making her turn and look while he got away unscathed. It was all good-natured, if he'd honestly thought Toad would hurt her he wouldn't have left her of coarse, but he figured she'd fair better than he would have ever hoped to.

Toad's grand retaliation was to half-heartedly toss the spatula at her and correct the chair he'd overturned, all done with that horribly angry look.

The expression of anger Elizabeth had put on for Eric fell away to one of utter confusion.

"Wot now?"

"U-U-Uh…" She stiffly bent over and picked up the fallen spatula off the floor, turning it over in her hands trying to avoid answering for as long as possible, "It's just…" she looked up at him and knew in an instant she wasn't getting off without an explanation, "That's _it_? Your not gonna… throttle me?" Her voice was small, her words cautious.

He inwardly flinched at those words, a bitter expression crossing his face. So she even thought as little of him as all the others. "I've got to go work on the jet," he said plainly.

Even with all his trying to convince himself otherwise he'd stupidly gotten his hopes up.

Elizabeth gave him a wounded look, "Are you sure? The food won't take too long."

"I'm very _sure_," he said firmly, a sharp edge coming to his voice as he headed out the door.

Elizabeth glanced at the water that was just beginning to boil and sighed as she turned the heat on the stove down, lunch could wait. She followed after him, silent as a shadow…a loud clumsy shadow anyway. He was distracted enough not to notice her, it was not as if she posed a threat to him. He bypassed the hangar and went straight to the training room, shedding his vest, but none of his other layers of clothes. She frowned, the giddy girly part of her wanting to see more of him. He tossed his vest aside and immediately started dealing one hit after another to the punching bag; she had to wonder why it wasn't her he was hitting.

What had changed about him in so little time? Her plans didn't seem to work and yet his anger wasn't being taken out the slightest bit on her. No threats, no punches, was it possible that… No, he couldn't possibly like her, this was _Toad _for god's sake, he didn't care about anyone, least of all her. He was just some girlish fantasy of hers, he'd never actually like her. But that would be perfect, wouldn't it? Exactly what she wanted?

Why did he have to be so damn hard to figure out?

------

She's just like everyone else. She's just like everyone else. She's just like everyone else. He'd just keep saying it until she was, until she stopped talking to him so casually, until she stopped doing thing for him for no reason, until she stopped being so damned _nice_. She confounded him, seeming to change the was she acted every moment she was around him.

She's just like everyone else.

'_I was…worried about you.'_

Just like everyone else.

'_I-I know you were supposed to, your chore and all, but… well… you seemed busy.'_

Just like everyone else.

'_Not everyone is out to get you, you know.'_

She was just like every-fucking-one else. She had to be.

------

Eric was back-tracking back to the kitchen to ensure that Elizabeth was unharmed when he saw her in the hall, peeking into the training room. "Still alive I see," he said, grinning.

She literally jumped a good foot or so, managing a fluid spin to face him while still in the air, "E-Eric… what are you doing?"

"Better question, what are _you _doing?" he asked, looking past her into the training room to see Toad's attack on the punching bag still going on. "Oh, your spying on him again." He knew she'd been spying on Toad, she's talked about him quite frequently. "I'll never understand you Lizzy, I mean, Toad's a nice enough guy deep down… and I mean really deep down, but still." He sighed, running his hand through his hair. "You up for a game or something?"

"I need to finish up with lunch. Maybe later?" she replied absently.

"Uh…sure," he agreed slowly, feeling a bit rejected, " You need any help in the kitchen?" he asked almost hopefully.

She shook her head, "No, I think I got it."

"Okay, but after we eat you are so playing a round or two of Mario Carts, got it?" he added in a sort of forced joking way.

She smiled an nodded, lifting his spirit a bit. "Got it."

Elizabeth finished up the food with flourish, it wasn't exactly extravagant; garlic bread, spaghetti, and a rich sauce with really big meatballs, but it was one of the thing that she could quickly find the ingredients for.

Eric walked in about the time she was setting down the last bit of silverware.

"Attractive, intelligent, a good cook, even if you're a bit absent minded sometimes, you're a gift from the gods if ever I came across one." he said, taking her in a one-armed hug, and smiling at the blush quickly reddening her face, it was almost upsetting to think she wasn't used to complements, "Not to mention your good at video games."

She laughed, a sound he found he quite enjoyed. "You always beat me though."

"Hey, I said you were good, I didn't say you could defeat the master."

"Well oh great master of video games, you go ahead and eat and I'll tell toad that the foods done."

He let her go, "Oh, okay."

Elizabeth noted something odd in his tone and instantly frowned, worried, "Something wrong?"

"Nah," the odd tone she was sure she'd heard was gone, "Just don't expect there to be any food left when you two get back."

He sounded as Eric-y as ever. She shrugged it off, she must have imagined it.

Toad was rarely hard to find as he was nearly always in one of three places; the training room, the hangar, or his room which she was still to scared to enter.

At some point he'd gone to the hangar, and was making short work of what remained to be fixed on the jet.

"Um… Toad?" she ventured, not really wanting to bother him. Honestly, that name he went by left a bitter taste in her mouth, she didn't like calling him that.

"Wot?" his voice was flat, lacking its usual venom.

"Foods ready, Eric's already eating."

He was quiet for a moment, "I'll be there in a minute."

------

HONESTLY, what is up with these two and doubting the other's feelings? They're both so…GAH, it's frustrating. O.o But that's how they are.


	13. Questions and Poor Humor

_**I**_**t**_** S**_**o**_**u**_**n**_**d**_**e**_**d **_**M**_**u**_**c**_**h **_**C**_**o**_**o**_**l**_**e**_**r **_**i**_**n **_**M**_**y **_**H**_**e**_**a**_**d **_

_Summary_ Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.

**Warnings: **This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.

**Memo: **This perticular chapter is devoted to lbmunich's amazing review that certainly had a lot of thought in it and showed me that some people pay true attention to my stories and is the reason you don't have to wait an aditional four or so days for this chapter.

Forgive the cruddyness and lateness of this chapter, you'll like the end!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.

**Exalted Fans: **Itsallaboutme11 // animebaby6 // Jinx of the 2nd Law // foxfire222 // Angeldustedthatfreak // Italia12 //Shostakovich // st.elmo-lover // GothikStrawberry // darkraya // lbmunich

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_**C**_**h**_**a**_**p**_**t**_**e**_**r **_**T**_**h**_**i**_**r**_**t**_**e**_**e**_**n**_**: Q**_**u**_**e**_**s**_**t**_**i**_**o**_**n**_**s**_** a**_**n**_**d P**_**o**_**o**_**r**_** H**_**u**_**m**_**o**_**r**_

Eric, not surprised to see Elizabeth return alone, didn't question the matter and downed a large mouthful of spaghetti while she sat down. She really was a good cook, but in all reality it didn't take a lot to be a step up from take-out or the horrifying things Sabertooth could concoct for dinner. He snagged a quick second helping before she could get her first and grinned at her. She smiled, batting his hand away from the sauce playfully. "Leave some for Toad and me at least."

"Oh, he's coming?"

"Yeah, he said he'd be here in a minute."

Eric shifted a bit, suddenly finding it a bit harder to swallow. He and Toad were close in a sort of comradely sort of way, united by a cause and a leader, but that didn't really mean he could get the time of day from the guy. Yet he was the one and very same mutant treating Elizabeth the human better than anyone else in the lair lately. It wasn't anything to really worry about, right? It _was _still Toad after all. Still, that unfounded inexplicable infatuation she seemed to have for the guy did kind of worry Eric who didn't feel he was exactly safe for Elizabeth to spend so much time around.

He liked Elizabeth, of that much he was sure. He thought she was cute, funny, and smart. Eric himself, was all of those things himself and he knew she was sort of interested in him despite all that was going on, despite the fact that she could very likely be dead by the end of the week by any account and he admired that as some sort of odd sign of courage. Like she wouldn't let all of this get to her. She was above falling prey to worrying about the likeliness of negative possibility.

How was he to know that he was wrong?

Elizabeth prodded at her food idly, waiting respectfully for the last member of the party before she ate. She was so stuck on prodding her meatball that she didn't even notice Eric gazing off into space with a streak of sauce down the side of his nose or else she might have laughed. The moment Toad walked into the room, Elizabeth flashed him a smile in greeting and dove onto her food having only been ignoring her hunger out of her own good manners.

No one spoke. No one said a freaking word and it was all too unnerving but Elizabeth wasn't up to breaking it, having no clue what to say. No one even made eye contact. When had things suddenly become so awkward? It was like one had walked in on the other two having sex and no one wanted to talk about it.

Eric was the first to finish and after putting his dishes up sat back down and waited for Elizabeth, watching her. Still unused to gaining the attention of the opposite sex, shifted uneasily, averting her eyes. Even if he was a guy she considered a friend, he was a very _hot _friend.

She'd hardly managed to put down her fork before his whisk her plate away and put it in the sink. "You up for Mario Carts now?" he asked brightly.

"Um… well… I have to do dishes still," Elizabeth said, gesturing to the pans and such still on the table.

"I'll do it," Toad said suddenly, "my job anyway."

"Great, come on Liz it's been a while since we last played."

Now she was kind of weirded out, Eric was always kind of happy but he was acting too… eager? Hyper? What was a good word? It was just… off, they'd both been doing that a lot lately. It was not as if she'd known them a very long time or knew them in depth but still… "It's only been like two days Eric, no biggie," she said tensely, hard-pressed to rationalize things.

"Exactly, over 48 hours is a while, don't you think?"

"I guess." Elizabeth glanced over at Toad, finding him staring at her with a sort of glassy look. "Whatever, let's just get on with you kicking my butt at videogames, shall we?"

"Ladies first."

Elizabeth waited a moment, watching him expectantly.

He quirked an eyebrow, "What?"

"I'm waiting for you to go."

"That had to be the worst attempt at humor I've ever encountered," he chided.

"Well I never liked any of your jokes either! Every time I laughed I was faking."

"You're a horrible, horrible person, Elizabeth."

"_Just go on, both'a ya._"

The two left the room, not wanting to antagonize. "First one to get to my room get's the controller without the sticky 'X' button."

Elizabeth gave him a hard kick in the shin then sprinted off, full well knowing the way to his room. "YOU DIRTY LITTLE CHEAT! THAT HURT!" he called after her, limping down the hall.

The victorious girl lay on the bed, trying to steady her breath and look as bored as possible. "What took you so long?"

"You _KICKED_ me!"

"I did no such thing! And even if I did, don't be such a baby." she said, sticking her tongue out at him.

Eric grabbed her tongue, smirking at her. She glared, pushing his hand off, "Ew, you taste like soap!"

"Well at least you can rest safely knowing I wash my hands," he pointed out as if it were some true grand knowledge.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, snagging the 'good' controller while Eric took that as the signal to start up the game. It wouldn't start.

"Damn it, guess it didn't appreciate being stepped on this morning," Eric muttered,

He was immediately broadsided by a pillow. "You STEPPED on it? The ONE day I get the GOOD controller?"

He smiled sort of sheepishly, "Uh… yeah… well… We could watch a movie instead or something." Frankly he was very much hoping she would take him up on the offer.

Elizabeth shrugged, laying back down, "Let's just watch TV, I don't think I've gotten to since I got here."

"Okay." He tossed her the remote and she flipped through the channels. Not finding anything really worth watching, she just left it on Cartoon Network. Eric sat on the bed, watching her closely. "Hey, Liz?"

"Hmm?"

He'd hoped to have a better setting for this conversation but when you didn't know how much time you had left with someone, whatever time you had was as good as any. "What do you think is going to happen?"

She went rigid at the question, she hadn't thought about it after those first few days. "I don't know."

"Do you think your sister will… help you?"

No. She didn't. No way in hell would that frigid witch ever help her. But what should she tell Eric? She had no answer for him that she was willing to give just yet so instead she just turned away from him and faced the wall.

That was all the answer he needed.

"She isn't going to… is she?"

Elizabeth was quiet for a bit. "No… she's not."

Eric let it sink in; he'd known that was a possibility but he'd wanted to think that Elizabeth would come out of this no worse for wear, that she might be able to go home. "I'm sorry."

She sat up, looking him in the eye, "Don't be, and don't do anything stupid to get yourself in trouble either. Even if we are friends, no sense in both of us getting taken out, right?" she said brightly, "Just don't worry about me, I guess I'm kinda okay with it." That wasn't true, she didn't want to die, but even more so, she didn't want him to worry about her.

He couldn't believe it, she'd known all this time that she was going die and even now didn't falter. "Elizabeth…"

He couldn't take it anymore.

He kissed her.

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THE END! We will move on to the 2nd installment now so be on the lookout!


	14. THE CONTINUATION!

/u/1704296/ebell1

Ebell has now got absolute and full right to my story, so go see her about the sequel. I suggested a different title from what she had (my original title), "**D**_**o**_**w**_**n**_** T**_**o**_** T**_**h**_**e **_**W**_**i**_**r**_**e, **_**A**_**n**_**d**_** H**_**e**_**r**_**e**_** I **_**H**_**a**_**v**_**e **_**A**_** P**_**a**_**p**_**e**_**r**_**c**_**u**_**t" **_was what I suggested, but it's presently title 'that sounded much cooler in my head too'.

She knows Liz and Eric maybe better than I do and from what I've read, she's dead on with my idea.

But you could consult me if you have any questions, ebell.


	15. VERY VERY IMPORTANT!

THAT SOUNDED SO MUCH COLLER IN MY HEAD HAS FINALLY GONE WEBCOMIC!!

Just type in:

http:// cosmicfail. deviantart. com/

without the spaces to see it! Drop me a comment when you stop by!


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